AUGUST – SEPTEMBER 2022 – NEWSLETTER #52 |  Breaking news at IBL News  |  Noticias en Español Higher Ed • Biden Announced Its Plan to Cancel $10,000 in Student Loan Debt for Most Borrowers • The U.S. Government Cancels $3.9 Billion in Loans for Deceived ITT Students • Higher Ed's Data and Analytics Infrastructure Is Outdated, Finds an Educause Report • A Majority of Higher Ed Institutions Were Hit by Ransomware Attacks • New York State Government Alerts of Scam Practices in Higher Ed Universities • Harvard University Starts the Search for Its Next President • The University of Michigan Appoints a Canadian and Asian Descendant as Its 15th President • The University of Arizona Global Campus (UAGC) Buys the OPM Business of Zovio • A Leading Cognitive Scientist Will Be the First Woman to Lead Dartmouth • A Singapore Firm Buys a Private U.S. University and Will Create a Version in the Metaverse Trends • A Cengage's Report Reveals that the Degree Stigma Causes Employment Crisis • Half of the Students Prefer a Hybrid Class Format, While Faculty Favor In-Person Learning • Learning Soft Skills Is Critical to Be Hired, Says a Majority of Employers • Skill-Based Premium Pay: An Effective Way to Attract IT Talent, Says Gartner • About 222 Million School-Aged Children Around the World Need Education Support Initiatives • AWS Introduces Paid Subscriptions for Learners Looking to Bolster Cloud Skills • Google Releases an Android App that Encourages Children to Practice Reading • YouTube Launches the Shorts Feature to Compete with TikTok • FINRA Will Invest $90M Coming from Fines to Robinhood to Educate Newer Investors Open Source • An AI Model Named BLOOM, Larger than OpenAI’s GPT-3 and MetaAI’s OPT, Will Be Open Sourced • META Engineers Build a Universal Translator of 200 Languages in Open Source Software Financials • College Endowments Lost 10% In the Last Year • O'Reilly Says Its Business Grew at 45% Through Its New Platforms • ClassDojo Achieves the Unicorn Status at a $1.25 Billion Valuation • Web3 Learning and Talent UK's Neol Attracts $5.2 Million from Investors 2022 Events | All of the Key Conferences Listed! • Education Calendar 2022 – AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER | NOVEMBER | DECEMBER | Conferences in Latin America & Spain This newsletter was created in collaboration with IBL Education, a New York City-based company specializing in AI-driven, skills open source learning platforms and predictive analytics. We also film and produce courses for universities and business organizations. Read the latest IBL Newsletter  |  Archive of Open edX Newsletters
Nerdy Inc. (NYSE: NRDY), the owner of live online tutoring and classes platform Varsity Tutors, announced yesterday the acquisition of Codeverse, a platform that teaches kids to build apps and games with real code, for a non-disclosed amount. "Coding is one of the fastest-growing segments in education, yet the tools and resources for students have not kept up with the increasing demand," said Chuck Cohn, Founder, and CEO of Nerdy. Varsity Tutors will integrate Codeverse's tools as part of its membership offering. Codeverse was founded by husband and wife duo Craig Ulliott and Katy Lynch with a mission to "teach a billion kids to code." Nerdy’s flagship business, Varsity Tutors provides 3,000+ subjects and multiple formats through its platform, including one-on-one instruction, small group classes, large format group classes, and adaptive self-study. In the second quarter of 2022, Nerdy reported revenue of $42.2 million, up 29% compared to the second quarter of 2021. Gross profit of $28.8 million in the second quarter increased 35.2% year-over-year. The company claims to hold no debt and $121.0 million in cash on the balance sheet. Among its investors, Nerdy has Learn Capital, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and TCV. To date, the company has raised over $107 million. https://youtu.be/uUo9weedgi0
IBL News | New York Amazon introduced AWS Skill Builder and Team subscriptions this month. These are courses about cloud technologies that include hands-on training. The AWS Builder Labs will provide hands-on guided, practical exercises to develop skills for common cloud scenarios. Learners will receive a sandbox AWS account for the duration of the lab. The Individual subscription is offered monthly at the price of $29 per month or annually at the price of $299 per year. The subscription can be stopped at any time. Team subscriptions cost $449 per learner each year, though high-volume discounts are available. This plan includes enterprise-focused features such as the ability to assign training exercises, progress reports, and integration with a company’s single sign-on (SSO) provider. Last November, Amazon launched a bunch of free cloud skills products, such as AWS Skill Builder. Now, the e-commerce giant intends to monetize the offering through monthly subscriptions. In the last years, the “big three” cloud companies have introduced training courses to sway developers and companies over to their ecosystems. Last year Google introduced Google Cloud Skills Boost with the goal of training 40 million people. Similar to Amazon’s new effort, it charges $29 or $299 on a monthly or annual subscription. Despite the global economic climate and a $2 billion loss, Amazon last week reported continued strong cloud growth, with AWS revenues jumping 33% year on year to $19.74 billion in Q2.
Skillsoft (NYSE: SKIL) announced this week an integration partnership with Coursera (NYSE: COUR). This means that Skillsoft's customers, using the company's Percipio platform, will access Coursera for Business content, that is, over 5,000 courses, 300 SkillSets, and 10,000 bite-size clips. "This integration will bring even more choices of high-quality content to learners and deliver increased value as employers seek to reskill and upskill talent to overcome critical skills and talent shortages," said Apratim Purakayastha, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Skillsoft. Recent research conducted by Skillsoft and IDG found that 83% of decision-makers identified training and development as a critical priority within their organization.
Docebo Inc. (NASDAQ: DCBO; TSX:DCBO) reported an increase of 36%, to $34.9 million, on its revenue during the second quarter of 2022 compared to the period in the prior year. A total of 91% is subscription revenue. The company showed net income of $2.1 million, or $0.06 per share, compared to net loss of $7.2 million, or $0.22 per share in the same period. "With our long-term secular growth drivers intact, we believe our investments will continue to drive the success of our balanced growth strategy," said Claudio Erba, CEO and Founder of Docebo. Docebo disclosed that it had 3,106 customers, an increase from 2,485 customers at the end of June 30, 2021. In this reported period, Docebo added Cliplote, Bupa, Eurofins Scientific, Seven Hills Foundation, LeadingRE, and Genuine Parts Company as signature customers.
